Can Appreciative Inquiry Work For Purchasing?
Most purchasing professionals have never heard of
appreciative inquiry. It is a systematic discovery process to search for what
is best or positive in an organization or its strengths. These strengths are then
improved upon to create an even stronger and more dynamic organization.
Implementing change remains positive and thus springs from an organization’s
strengths, not its weaknesses, or deficiencies.
All too often in my purchasing career, I have experienced a
new purchasing leader or consultant, who comes from an outside company, then sweeps
into a purchasing department and castigates purchasing professionals for,
“doing everything wrong, unlike their former company, that did everything
right.” This negative reactive approach
to change often results in people becoming even more resistant to change.
Traditional reactive methods to implementing change emphasize fixing what is
broken or weak in an organization. This approach almost never works and causes
even more fear.
One of the tools of appreciative inquiry is the sharing of
stories about an organization. Employees are asked to describe a time when they
were really engaged and excited about their work. Employees are asked to list
what was great or memorable about the time. The themes or actions that the
organization used are carefully studied and grouped. Common themes of these
stories may evolve or confirm a major strength of an organization. These
strengths then become skill springboards from which the organization needs to
use and embellish.
I have previously discussed the storytelling techniques
in a MyPurchasingCenter.com blog titled Use the Storytelling Method to Train Supply Chain Professionals. http://bit.ly/1nQ51Wj
As a review, here are some of the advantages of storytelling:
The brain stores
information by stories.
Stories are
humanizing and stimulate creativity.
Storytelling improves
listening skills.
Storytelling builds a
team culture.
It encourages collaboration.
Appreciative inquiry takes storytelling to the next level. The memorable stories and positive results
become the dynamic building blocks of an organization’s competitive edge. It makes
the vision or mission become actualized or reach their full potential!
Here is an example. One of the strengths of a purchasing
organization that I led was sourcing and the use of cross-functional teams. The
vast majority of the team members felt good about the sourcing decision and the
transition plan to the selected supplier. A systematic methodology was used and
modified as needed. Team members were well equipped to defend the selection and
present the reasoning to other non-team members. Most members could defend and
justify the selection and did it consistently and with enthusiasm. To my
surprise the non-purchasing team members were even better at justifying the
selection. The metrics almost always
supported the supplier selection.
I, like many purchasing professionals, was initially very
skeptical of the appreciative inquiry approach. Who has the time for it? Purchasing
spends an inordinate amount of time fixing what is broken like expediting
orders, handling bad quality parts, fixing bad suppliers, chasing down supply
chain interruptions and overall upsets. These are all in the realm of fixing
what is broke. The fact is that purchasing spends too much time as a
firefighters putting out fires. Living in this type of hectic atmosphere or
culture does not encourage a different positive approach to change. In fact, it
encourages skepticism and the avoiding of risk.
In conclusion, appreciative inquiry can be a useful approach
for positive change in purchasing. The challenge to purchasing is to make the
time to discover the strengths of the purchasing organization. It requires patience and the gathering of
memorable stories. Purchasing should build on its strengths rather than tear
down its image by constantly fixing what is “broke”. In purchasing you are what you are
perceived. Too often purchasing is viewed,
as the harried firefighter who can never put out all the fires. Appreciative
inquiry is a good approach to start to change this negative traditional image.
Dr. Tom DePaoli is (CEO) of Apollo Solutions (www.apollosolutions.us) which does general business
consulting in the supply chain, Lean Six Sigma and human resources areas.
Recently he retired from the Navy Reserve after over 30 years of service. In
other civilian careers, he was a supply chain and human resources executive
with corporate purchasing turnaround experience and Lean Six Sigma deployments.
He is the author of 11 books. His Amazon author’s page is https://www.amazon.com/author/tomdepaoli
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